Pharmacy 777 Nollamara is Australian Pharmacy of the Year 2016

A multi-lingual pharmacy that offers private counselling in-store has cleaned up at the national Pharmacy Guild of Australia awards at the Gold Coast, with Pharmacy 777 Nollamara named 2016 National Pharmacy of the Year.

The award is in recognition of Pharmacy 777 Nollamara’s innovative work in mental health, private counselling and clinical hypnotherapy services offered within the pharmacy, in addition to its other professional services including sleep apnoea, diabetes, asthma, pain, flu vaccination and various health screenings.

Pharmacy owner Swarup (Sam) Afsar has led the team since 2008 and was named Innovative Pharmacist of the Year in 2015 for his contribution to mental health in the local community. Pharmacy 777 Nollamara has become the health destination in its local community, with patients driving up to 50km to visit.

Every team member speaks a second language – to cater to the needs of the multi-cultural local community. “Across our team, we speak 12 different languages, and by effectively using our multilingual skills we provide services and the same level of care to our non-English speaking patients as well,” Afsar said.

His team’s mission has been to drive a health culture at the pharmacy having a motto of focus, innovation and consistency.

“We focus on our patients, we consistently deliver positive health outcomes to every patient every single time and we innovate to cater to the health care needs of our local community” Afsar said.

The pharmacy is improving the mental health of its patients by increasing medication compliance, improving lifestyle and sleep habits, and promoting counselling services. This provides early intervention, further reducing the burden on the medical system.

“The focus of Pharmacy 777 is on dispensing our knowledge first and recognising that when a patient leaves a Doctor’s surgery with a prescription, they are still a patient when they walk into one of our pharmacies. We believe we have a responsibility to ensure that positive health outcomes are achieved. Winning Pharmacy of the Year is testament to the quality of our team at Pharmacy 777 Nollamara and the determination our Group has towards our vision of enhancing the quality of life within our community.” Pharmacy 777 Group Managing Director Kim Brotherson said.